Red RC » International

September 12, 2025

2026 ISTC Worlds track Hongyu GDC opens in China

Not existing earlier this year when IFMAR officially announced Foshan in China as the host venue for the 2026 1:12 and ISTC World Championships, the brand new Hongyu GDC RC facility has officially opened ahead of hosting its first ever race this weekend. Under the leadership of Gavin Gwok, who created the previous GDC Indoor track located in the same city, the new facility dwarfs its predecessor and comprises of three impressive tracks. The main outdoor asphalt track, on which the 2026 ISTC World Title will be decided next April, covers an area 80m X 43m while a second but covered track, on which the next 1:12 World Champion will be decided measures 42m X 23m. Offroad is also catered for with a 50m X 26m dirt track that was built by Spanish track builder Miguelo Izquierdo Rodriguez, who created the recent eBuggy World Championship track in Barcelos Portugal. The Hongyu GDC International Science, Education & Motorsports Center, to give it its full title is one of World’s largest dedicated RC facilities. The state-of-the-art complex features comprehensive amenities including a multi-function hall, a professional RC hobby shop, a public pit area with capacity for 120 competitors, 15 private pit rooms, Race control and media rooms, a crawler course experience zone, and dedicated vehicle cleaning stations. Later this year many of the World’s top onroad racers will get to see & experience the track for the first time when it hosts the combined Asian Championships and Worlds Warm-up Race. 1:12 runs from December 5-7 with Touring Car taking place from December 12-14. Red RC is excited to be travelling to FEMCA’s Asian Championships, having attended last year’s championships at the old GDC track, and we are very much looking forward to working from the dedicated press room.

View facility images here

September 11, 2025

MIBO International 2026 – Date Announcement

With newly crowned 1:8 eBuggy World Champion Marcus Kaerup adding his name to its roll of honour earlier this year, the date for the fourth edition of MIBO International has been announced for 2026. Created by former international touring car racer Michal Bok back in 2023, the unique annual international event, that combines side by side indoor onroad and offroad racing, will take place from Feb 27-Mar 1st. Held at the Sport V Hotel in the town of Hrotovice in the Czech Republic, the race also counts Ronald Volker, Michal Orlowski, Bruno Coelho, Joern Nuemann and Bartek Zaleswki among its previous winners. With everything from the track, a restaurant, a bowling alley and hotel rooms all under one roof, the Sport V Hotel venue is always popular with visiting racers. With a capped entry limit, the relaxed schedule means plenty of time in the evening to wind down and socialise over dinner after each day’s racing. Officially a two and a half day event, the Mibosport promoted race gets underway on the Friday evening with practice allowing for travel Friday morning. For the fourth edition, the onroad track will host racing for Modified, 17.5 Stock, and FWD Touring Car plus Onroad Kids, while over on the offroad carpet track, 2WD and 4WD Buggy make up the schedule with Offroad Kids giving the next generation of young racers a chance to race on the international stage. The opening of registration for MIBO International 2026 will be announced shortly.

Source: MIBO [mibosport.com]

September 7, 2025

Coelho ends Orlowski’s ETS winning streak

Infinity’s Bruno Coelho has ended reigning ETS Champion Michal Orlowski’s 12 race winning streak by taking victory at Round 3 in Luxembourg. In qualifying it was Awesomatix driver Lucas Urbain, a previous winner at his home track, who secured the overall TQ with two fastest runs over the 4 qualifiers. Topping Q4, Orlowski would line up second ahead of Coelho with Q3 pace setter Marc Rheinard securing P4 ahead of the Mugen Seiki of practice Top Seed Ronald Volker. With the first A-Main run on Saturday evening, two great passes would see Coelho go to the front and take the win ahead of Urbain with a late spin dropping Orlowski to 5th. A2 would see Urbain lead from Orlowski, Coelho and Rheinard as the Top 4 held station but approaching the final 2-minutes Urbain ran wide giving Orlwski the lead. Then at the track’s famous cork screw corner a mistake from Urbain dropped the Fremchman to fourth. With Orlowski in control, as the race came up on the final minute the newly crowned European Champion came to a halt handing Coelho the lead as the Polish ace DNF’d. Winning by 2/10ths of a second from Rheinard’s Awesomatix, it secured the World Champion his first win since joining Infinity at the start of the 2025 season. In A3 Urbain would get the win ahead of Orlowski and Mugen Seiki’s Sören Sparbier to secure the runner-up spot with the podium completed by Rheinard with Orlowski ending up in 5th behind Sparbier. In Stock, Awesomatix’s Olivier Bultynck continued his perfect season taking the TQ and win number 3. He was joined on the podium by Tim Benson and Lukas Ellerbrock.

Image: Awesomatix [Facebook]

September 7, 2025

Kandelhart & Federico European 40+ Nitro Champions

The iconic Gubbio track in Italy played host to the EFRA 40+ European Nitro Onroad Championships where Austrian Gerhard Kandelhart and Italian Zugno Federico took the titles. In 1:10, it was onroad nitro racing stalwart & 2016 Champion Kandelhart who secured the TQ at the former World Championship host track as he topped four of the five qualifying rounds. Fastest in Q4 Swiss racer & 2022 Champion Traugott Schaer qualified second followed by Werner Spannbruckner from Austria. In the 45-minute final Kandelhart would control the race with his Infinity taking the win by a lap from Finnish racer Sammy Pajalin who from 7th on the grid just got the better of Schaer who completed the podium. In 1:8 qualifying went the way Italian Team Shepherd driver Felice Mollo over Zugno and Luca Martinelli. In the final it was Zugno would take the win just ahead of Fabrizio Iori , who started 6th, with 3-time former Champion Martinelli completing the podium ahead of Mollo in 4th.

View 1:8 Podium here

September 4, 2025

2025 MonTech New York Grand Prix – Entries Open

Established as one of the highlights on the annual American onroad racing calendar, entries for the seventh running of the MonTech New York Grand Prix are now open. Taking place on October 16-19 at the 360v2 indoor track in New Rochelle, New York, the race schedule will see drivers complete for top honours over 9 different classes. Last year it was Awesomatix’s Kemp Anderson who took his first NYGP victory securing the big win of the weekend in 1:12 Mod ahead of Donny Lia and Germany’s 1:12 Spec World Champion Max Machler. In Mod Touring Car it was Keven Hebert who took the spoils for Xray. Counting multiple World Champions Marc Rheinard (2022 NYGP Winner), Ronald Volker (2019 NYGP Winner), and Alexander Hagberg as previous participants, having attended its first NYGP last year Red RC is excited to once again be heading stateside to report on the battles to become a 2025 MonTech New York Grand Prix Champion.

View NYGP race poster here

September 4, 2025

’25 1:8 Elec. Offroad World C/ship Chassis Focus Index

2025 will go down in the history books as the year that IFMAR staged the inaugural 1:8 Electric Offroad World Championship with 116 drivers from around the world travelling to Portugal last week for 5 days of action at the Barcelos Buggy Arena track located in the north of the country. While 1:8 Nitro Buggy is the established blue ribbon category of offroad racing, 19 World Champions having been crowned so far, eBuggy is a hugely important market for the industry for both chassis and electronics manufacturers. Many manufacturers were very open about how eBuggy kits generate more main stream sales than nitro, all thanks to its plug & play and no mechanic required simplicity. Now the category has its first World Champion and a very worthy one at that in Danish talent Marcus Kaerup, the 17-year-old’s win bringing Team Associated’s tally of IFMAR World titles to an impressive 34!! While not achieving the same size entry as nitro, which enjoys capacity 180 entries, the first eBuggy Worlds was successfully executed and set a strong foundation for future editions, the United States the stage for the next eBuggy Worlds in 2027 (P.S. IFMAR can you please allow trackside commentary next time so everyone can experience an atmosphere that a World Championship deserves!). During our coverage, which was made possible thanks to electronics manufacturer Team Cayote, we managed to photograph buggies from 8 different manufacturers for our ‘Chassis Focus’. Interestingly, such was the desire to become the first ever 1:8 Electric Buggy World Champions, and have an edge on their rivals, two manufacturers only allowed their cars to be photographed after the event was complete on Saturday evening. With 13 drivers lining up for the triple A-Main, buggies from 7 different manufacturers added great variety with Team Associated, Xray and Sworkz sharing the honour of most cars in the final with 3 each. We have compiled the 8 buggies we got our hands on in our latest Chassis Focus Index.

View Chassis Focus Index here

September 1, 2025

Gruber takes second ENS win of 2025

Capricorn’s Toni Gruber has claimed his second win of the 2025 Euro Nitro Series, the German taking the Round 3 victory at Apeldoorn in the Netherlands ahead of Mugen Seiki’s Simon Kirzbuch. Winner of the season opener at Ettlingen in Germany, Gruber would secure the TQ by topping the opening 3 of the 4 rounds of qualifying. Posting a TQ run in the final round, reigning Champion Kurzbuch, who won the previous round at Aigen in Austria, would qualify second on the grid ahead of Infinity’s Teemu Leino and ARC’s Silvio Hachler. Despite tricky weather conditions for finals day, the dry 45-minute Main would see Gruber dominate to win by almost 2-laps from Kurzbuch despite the Swiss driver setting the fastest lap. The big moment of the race would come as it approached the final minute, as Leino’s car had a problem and came to a halt, this allowing Hachler to complete the podium. In 1:10 Nitro Touring Car, Poland’s Jakub Rozycki continued to rule the season as he made it three wins in a row finishing 2-laps clear of defending champion Melvin Diekmann and Tim Benson.

Image: Ielasi Tuned [Facebook]

September 1, 2025

Asian Buggy Championships Indonesia – Cancelled

The organisers of the upcoming Asian Buggy Championships season finale which was set to take place in Jakarta have cancelled the race due to the civil unrest that Indonesia is currently experiencing. The fourth round was scheduled to run from September 10-14th at Westside Raceway in the capital and bring a conclusion to a very successful 3rd season the championship, However, due to safety concerns for racers, track owner Adrian Wicaksono advised championship promoter Scotty Ernst to cancel the race. Having debuted on the championship calendar last year, the dirt track a huge hit with racers, the unfortunate announcement was communicated directly to registered racers in a letter from Ernst who emphasised ‘Everyone’s safety is our number one concern’.

View Race Organiser’s communication here